Ten countries warn Israel’s Gaza blockade is worsening as winter deepens The foreign ministers of 10 countries have raised alarm over what they described as a sharp deterioration in Gaza’s humanitarian conditions, warning that the situation has reached “catastrophic” levels. In a joint statement released on Tuesday by the UK Foreign Office, the ministers of Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland said civilians are facing increasingly dire conditions as winter sets in. “As winter draws in, civilians in Gaza are facing appalling conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping,” the statement said. The ministers highlighted the scale of the crisis, noting that “1.3 million people still require urgent shelter support”, while more than half of Gaza’s health facilities remain only partially operational and lack basic medical equipment and supplies. They warned that the “total collapse of sanitation infrastructure has left 740,000 people vulnerable to toxic flooding.” The statement called on Israeli authorities to allow international NGOs to operate in Gaza in a “sustained and predictable” manner, warning that many established aid organisations face deregistration by the end of December due to new Israeli restrictions. “As 31 December approaches, many established international NGO partners are at risk of being deregistered because of the government of Israel’s restrictive new requirements,” it said.